Are you blocking your body’s natural ability to heal?

I feel tired these last few days. I want to clean my house and do some other physical activities, but my body is saying no. My mind is saying, “body, there is something wrong with you.” However my higher self knows that I have to yield and surrender to the cycle my body is in right now even if it doesn’t make sense to me, and even if I want it to be different. To push through it is not an option. This is not the way of the intuitive body. Ask the body instead what it needs during this time. Does it need extra water and lots of sleep, even if you don’t feel sick? Yes, that is what it needs. Your mind doesn’t need to know why.

I see so many people objectifying their bodies, fighting what the body is asking for and trying to squeeze, push, jam, and impose the demands of their minds onto their bodies. They have glorified mind over matter and become angry, disappointed, frustrated and ashamed when their bodies can not perform in the way they think it should. With this disregard of the body’s cycles and individual needs, the body breaks down. When people refuse to listen to the whispers of the body, energy turns into discomfort, discomfort turns into pain or injury, and pain turns into chronic illness.

The body is a miraculous mechanism that is constantly working hard to return to homeostasis without you having to consciously think about it. The body has its cycles of high activity and low activity, of action and of regeneration. Somehow we, our egos, decide that certain levels of inactivity are inappropriate and so we deny our body the chance to repair and refresh itself.

What’s remarkable is that we actually spend a lot of time fighting our own bodies’ self-repair mechanisms purely because we don’t understand them (if we don’t understand it we don’t value it), because they are inconvenient to us (“I don’t have time to rest or eat well”), or because they compete with our identity (“men don’t cry” or “I can’t dance” ).

I see people in my counseling & coaching practice get in the way of their own healing process in the following ways (many of which are reinforced by society):

Stopping the flow of highly purifying tears because they feel ashamed of crying and being “weak”

Scolding their bodies for being tired and not doing enough (and turning to stimulants to improve their daily performance)

Developing chronic pain because they ignore an emotion that is wanting to be recognized and expressed

Not moving their bodies because they are afraid of being judged and looking silly

Not resting enough

Not trusting the intuitive voice of their bodies over the “shoulds” of their minds

Tune into this right now.

Close your eyes and notice the state of your body. How energetic do you feel in the moment? Notice if there is a disconnect between how you want to feel and how you actually feel. If there is, take a deep belly breath and fully accept the state you are in right now. Fully love yourself and your body in its present state. Feel a sense of trust that your body is functioning exactly the way it needs to in this moment, even if you don’t understand why. Next, ask the body what it needs. Stay quiet and still, and let the answer emerge in its own time. Your attention might be brought to a body part, to a word, or to an image. Trust that intuitive message and take the next step to help your body repair itself.